Hey all. Yesterday I drove about 2 hours each way to pick up a guitar found on a neighboring Craig's List. An 81 X290 for the ridiculous sum of... wait for it..... $125USD!!Now I have an X280 that I love tyo death.... but what puzzles me on the X290, is the weight. it's about 2 pounds heavier. (1 Kilo) Looking at the old site, it said it was "Black with walnut finish" Uhhh... wha?

Any one have an idea as to what wood was used?

(there's this voice in my head screaming " STRIP IT!!! For the love of God, strip it!" and the logical one saying ..."Nooooo.... not fun...")

I believe most of the X290 (Black) Workingman are Mahogany bodied, no guarantees. Typically Mahogany is lighter than the Maple/Ash bodies, although that has a lot to do with how dry the wood was when manufactured. Only the earliest of the X280 (Walnut Stained) Workingman are Mahogany, like the first couple months of production. I own one and there are a couple of cool of differences; Mahogany body & neck, real pearl inlay on a black painted headstock. The vast majority of the X280's would be Maple/Ash plank bodies with a simple stencil logo on the walnut stained headstock.

The X290 always listed for $10 to $15 more on the price lists, which could be because of the Mahogany, or because of the inlay on the headstock, basically it was considered a little more elegant than the Walnut stained X280.

The X290 I have is Mahogany, and I had to take the neck off to look at the neck pocket, the only place not painted to verify. Still don't know what the neck is, I suspect it is Maple. I feel that stripping it to determine the wood is overkill, although scratching a bit in the pickup routes or control cavity wouldn't show. If you want to strip it to decrease weight, I"m not sure how successful that would be, and you can bet it'll be a lot of work. The painted Electra's of this era have a thick, tough coating that is pain to remove.

The early MMK pickups used on these are some of my favorites, they have a row of slotted screws and a row of slugs for pole pieces. Despite their 'entry level' reputation, both my workingmen play and sound great and hold their own with Electra's higher priced offerings. Enjoy!

There was an X290 that Ozarkcannon had donated for a door prize at Electrafest 2012 that was very surprising on how well it played, sounded and felt. I think that it might have been the first one selected in the door prize raffle it was that nice.

_________________"This is the way that pop ends, Not with a BANG but with a box set whose fourth disc you never get around to playing” - Simon Reynolds